STEPHEN KENT: Landing

Stephen Kent

Landing

© 1995 Trance Mission Music

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On "Landing" Master Didjeridu artist Stephen Kent proves that one doesn't need electricity to make ambient music, painting an amazing textured landscape of layered resonating hums that massage the body and mind into perfect spiritual accord

notes

Here's what critics are saying about Stephen Kent's extraordinary
body of work:

"If you're skeptical about being swept away by someone blowing through
a hollowed-out branch, you're in for a big surprise. - SF Weekly

"Kent is one of the pre-eminent virtuosos of the didgeridoo." - Dirty Linen

"This trailblazing artist manages to sound both primal and cutting edge...Kent employs this ancient Aboriginal instrument in an ultra-modern context."
- Maui Scene

"Blurring the lines between ambient, world music, and new age, Stephen Kent continues to blow minds as he blows the didgeridoo." - BAM

"Highly recommended new music for a 21st-century world culture."
- Rhythm Magazine

"As a key man in the groups Lights In A Fat City and Trance Mission, Kent has wielded the unwieldy wooden tube as deftly as possible, initiating many Western ears into how the didjeridu should and might be played." - The Beat

"Stephen Kent, who composed, arranged, provided vocals and played the didjeridus, tuba, drums, and other percussion on all the selections, is a formidable talent...Watch for him in the future." - Napra Review

"...a comprehensive exploration of the world of the didgeridoo from one of its pioneering virtuosos." - URB

"Kent proves that one doesn't need electricity to make ambient music...he paints an amazing, textured landscape of layered resonating hums that massage the mind and body into perfect spiritual accord." - Oculus Magazine


STEPHEN KENT

Pioneering didjeridu virtuoso Stephen Kent has done more than any other musician to bring the ancient Aboriginal sound into a contemporary context. "I want to capture the essence and potential of the didjeridu and to put it on the musical map as a serious instrument with incredible versatility," says the composer and multi-instrumentalist. During a twenty-year career with the didjeridu, Kent has developed an approach that is unmistakably his own, exploring a remarkable range of playing styles in diverse musical genres. Along the way he has amassed a catalogue of over a dozen critically acclaimed CD's, including four solo releases and many others with his group projects Trance Mission, Beasts of Paradise and Lights In A Fat City.

Demand for Kent's didj work has taken him all over the world, playing, recording and collaborating with top artists in divergent musical arenas, from Leonard Eto of Kodo in Japan, to Megadrums with Airto Moreira and Zakir Hussain, to Habib Koite of Mali, and back home to the Oakland Symphony Orchestra's new work by Afro-Cuban pianist Omar Sosa.

His latest solo CD, Oil and Water (Famiy Tree) was recently hailed as a "potent mix of blood, guts and grace" in which the didj becomes a "living, breathing, rhythmist, capable of transforming deep groove music into something magical...from the soul of the spirits to the soul of man." By "merging spirituality and the modern world" Kent "manages to sound both primal and cutting edge."

Raised in East Africa and the UK, Kent cut his teeth in the London music scene of the late 70's with the punkish (and still beloved) band Furious Pig. As musical director of Australia's Circus Oz he found a relationship with Aboriginal culture and the didjeridu. "Awakening to the Aboriginal world was like my own Big Bang. For me, the recreation of a musical universe on the didj, the culture of one note, continues to this day," Kent says.

After his stint in the Circus Arts Kent focused once more on music. He began to build a career around the sound of the didj, forming Lights In A Fat City in London and touring throughout Europe and North America. The group's landmark debut CD Somewhere (1987) was the first European release of contemporary didjeridu music.

In 1991 Kent relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he co-formed the groups Trance Mission and Beasts of Paradise, performing and recording to great public and critical acclaim in the U.S. and abroad. With the ground-breaking and well-received Landing (City of Tribes), Kent embarked upon his solo career. The follow-up Family Tree (COT) is a stellar collection of works from the aforementioned groups along with dazzling new pieces that together trace the unique sonic journey Kent began two decades earlier.

A wholly original talent, truly transcending categories, Stephen Kent is an innovator on the global music scene with the ability to both trigger the imagination and transport the spirit.

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  • Very Cool
    author: Pam

    I'm loving this CD. Its a great blend of old and new and some of the best chill didgeridoo playing around. Thank you Stephen. This album has fastly become on of my favorites.

  • author: Landing

    Excellent Stephen, glad I tracked it down to get it in CD. Excellent fusion of styles and in particular, wonderful Didgeridoo.

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